Books

A new manual by Guy Dewsbury PhD and Debbie Ballard of gdewsbury. Written for practitioners and professionals who assess, provide or install telecare including people who work with assistive technology.

This manual is an independent assessment tool which is not affiliated to any telecare organisation, company or manufacturer.

Buying a tablet computer – Sixteen tips to help make your choice

These days, the choice of what computer has more difficult with the introduction of the iPad and tablet computing. In this simple to read guide, Dr Dewsbury provides sixteen tips to help a potential buyer ensure they get the best tablet for their money. Available from Amazon in Kindle format. ASIN: B008GMD5FG

Easy to use mobile phones

In this book Dr Dewsbury reviews forty five of the most common UK phones that are easy to use. The book provides and easy to understand no nonsense approach to purchasing a mobile phone and explains the features that are most common.

The book highlights phones that are readily available in the UK.

In the book Dr Dewsbury focuses on sight difficulties, hearing impairments, phones for safety and simple phones designed for older people. Available from Amazon on Kindle. ASIN: B008GMH7C8

A guide to buying a mobile phone for the over 50’s

Do you know someone who is considering purchasing a mobile phone or someone who will be upgrading their phone soon?

The mobile phone had been considered a young person’s gadget for a long time and most phones are primarily aimed at the younger audience in their design and features. However, there is a change occurring. This guide looks at the current generation of mobile phones designed for the over 50’s or people who are experiencing deterioration with dexterity, hearing or vision.

This guide is designed to show the breadth of selection of mobile phones and provides information for making an informed choice. The guide’s contents include a discussion on technophobia and technology acceptance, the features to consider and how these are applied to the use of the phone. The guide also highlights phones that are hearing aid compatible, have large fonts, large displays and other important features. The guide lists 45 appropriate (non-smart) phones available in the UK and reviews 12 of them in detail.

The eBook is available from Amazon in the UK or in the US Amazon . The eBook is published in .mobi format for Kindle but other formats are available directly by contacting gdewsbury. ASIN: B007U5VG0G

Responsibility and Dependable Systems

Responsibility and Dependable Systems is the first book to examine the relationship between responsibility and system dependability. Both editors have backgrounds in computing and social science giving them a unique insight into how responsibility influences system dependability in different environments.

Divided into three parts, the first considers the philosophical and social aspects of responsibility, revisiting socially oriented system failures from a social, ethnographic perspective to tease out the complexities of the responsibilities that were implicated in the failure. Part Two uses a series of simple modelling notations to consider responsibility from a process and role-oriented perspective, using ideas from computer science, social science, management theory and engineering. The final section introduces new methods for analysing responsibility and mapping responsibilities within an organisation. The methods are illustrated by annotated models that can be adapted for use in both analysing and preventing failures of responsibility.

Systems engineers, computer scientists, social scientists, ergonomists and management researchers will all benefit from reading the book, and professionals and practitioners making organisational decisions concerning dependable human-computer systems, will also find it of value.